Washington Post Poll: First Debate Changed Little

Some 37 percent of likely voters said that their view of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney improved as a result of his debate performance.

However, voters remain locked in on their voting preferences, with President Barack Obama maintaining a three-point lead nationally, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed.

Despite Romney being viewed as the winner in the first debate by 71 percent of likely voters, voters are unmoved. The poll found that likely voters preferred Obama 49 to 46 percent. In the last Post poll conducted before the first debate, Obama lead Romney 49 to 47 percent.

The poll found that voters are basically locked into their views, deeply split along partisan lines, and appear unlikely to change. Some two-thirds say they do not need any more information and just one in eight say they could change their mind by Election Day.

Romney’s performance did do him some good among his supporters. Those saying they support him “very enthusiastically” increased by about 10 points and is now at twice the level it was for Sen. John McCain four years ago.

However, Obama’s number of “very enthusiastically” supporters also jumped by nearly 10 points and both candidates are about even on this metric.

Obama continues to lead Romney on six of seven key areas when voters were asked who they would trust to do a better job. Obama led on handling the economy, international affairs, taxes, healthcare, Medicare, and an unexpected major crisis. Romney led on dealing with the federal budget deficit.

The Post poll surveyed 1,252 adults by telephone October 10 through 13.